Aquarium, Thyroid Study, Birthday, Occupational Therapy, Temple Square

Last week Aaron had the lovely opportunity to take a business trip to Texas.  That meant I got to be a single parent during the week and, I won't lie, it was difficult for me.  Monday we got to get up at 5 am to take Aaron to the airport in order to get Matthew home in time to catch his bus to school.  It was a crazy way to start out a week of single parenthoodedness (if that's even a word).  Monday night was Autism night at the Living Planet Aquarium in Draper which I really wanted to go to.   Thankfully Grandpa T volunteered to come help me out.  I really needed the help because there were a lot of people there and Noah thinks it is hilarious to run away and 'get lost' to make me frantic looking for him--the little stinker!!  I really needed Grandpa's help for sure!!  Since the aquarium had just moved buildings not all the exhibits were open yet, but the ones that were really neat to see.  One of my favorites was the jelly fish exhibit.

I could sit and watch the jellyfish swim for hours and still be mesmerized.

 We also got to see the river otters.  They are fast swimmers so, of course, I didn't get them in the picture--d'oh!

 We also liked watching the penguins swim around from an underwater view:

 Then we got to see them from closer to the top of the water.

 Then we got to see how the kids measured up to the penguins' heights from their models on the wall:

 They had a few touching exhibits as well.  All the kids got a chance to touch this Boa Constrictor Snake wrapped around the brave employee's waist:

 They also got to touch a yellow gecko:

 Not all the exhibits were marine life.  There were a few spiders, snakes, etc. you got to see as well:

 Another touchy exhibit was you got to feel the spiny sea urchins.  You can't see them very well in the picture, but they were interesting/fun to touch according to who you talked to.

 One of the neatest exhibits was the shark tunnel.  There was an underwater tunnel surrounded by all sides with water in which you could see a bunch of different sharks and other marine life swimming around.  It was really neat.

 You could see the sharks swim right over your head which was kind of eerie.

 Another touching thing was the Madagascar whistling cockroach.  I wasn't too keen on touching this specimen, but all the other kids wanted a chance to touch including Sarah:

 They had a plain jane Garter snake you could touch as well:

 All in all it was a fun visit to the aquarium.  I am glad Grandpa was there to help me out because I really needed it!!  I am also grateful that different businesses offer such experiences for families with special needs children.  It was nice to visit without being judged on Matthew's quirky behavior (playing incessantly with all door handles and elevator buttons, hand flapping, asking odd questions to employees, etc.) because there were a lot of other kids doing the exact same things, too.

The day before Aaron left on his trip we had a family movie night.  We have been watching the TV series Psych because it's pretty clean and funny.  However, that episode we watched was a little on the scary side.  It really got to Sarah.  The first night that Aaron was gone, I had a little visitor to my bed at midnight.  It scared me half to death, but then I realized it was just Sarah.  She had brought her blankie with her and said she was really scared and needed loves.  She ended up sleeping in my bed all night long.  This is the first time that I have ever let a kid sleep in my bed all night.  I usually can't handle anyone next to me, but since Aaron was gone Sarah had a whole unused half a bed to sleep in.  She came in to my room every night at midnight just like clockwork and slept in my bed while Aaron was gone.  However, Sarah seemed to have gotten over her fears when Aaron got home because she stopped coming in saying she was scared.  We have since been screening what episodes of Psych we watch now because Sarah doesn't handle to extra scary ones very well.  Just FYI Psych is a comedy TV show about a guy who pretends to be Psychic and solves crimes.   It is a funny show, but a few episodes are a little on the scarier side for Sarah it seems.

The next day was Josh's birthday.  We had already kind of celebrated his birthday on Sunday while Aaron was in town so he could see Josh open his presents and eat his cake.  So to celebrate his real birthday I was on my own.  I decided to check Josh out of school and take him out to lunch at the restaurant of his choice.  He chose the Pizza Pie Cafe and LOVED it.  His favorite was the Oreo cookie pizza which I think he ended up eating 4 slices of.

We had a fun lunch and afterward Josh said he just wanted to spend the afternoon with me.  So instead of sending him back to school we spent the rest of the afternoon together.  We went to the grocery store to pick out his birthday treats for his class.  Then the rest of the afternoon until everyone came home from school we played with his new Snap Circuits present and with his new characters on the Infinity game.  I am not very good at helping him build the different projects or playing the Wii, but he didn't care.  He said he just enjoyed spending time with me.  He can be a sweet boy.  It was nice to spend some time with him, too.

Last week was chaotic because all the kids had so much stuff going on.  Usually it's not a problem because Aaron and I can divide and conquer, but with him being out of town it was crazy.  There were soccer games every night (except Monday), in addition to scouts, young mens, play group, dance, piano lessons, etc many of which overlapped each other.  Because I was alone that meant I had to take the whole crew to everyone's soccer games.  After one game in particular, I was cleaning up the blanket and my chair at the end of a soccer game.  Matthew took advantage of my lack of supervision and ran over to the opposing team's coach and asked if he could get some snacks, too.  I didn't see what had happened until he came walking back to me carrying some Oreos and a drink.  When his siblings saw what he had they went crazy because they wanted some, too.  I wasn't about to let all the rest of them run over and bother the coach for snacks, either.  Their fighting got louder and louder when the other coach realized what had happened she was kind enough to walk over and give the rest of my kids some snacks, too.  I was so embarrassed!  That was really nice of her to do that, though.  I was really glad to see Aaron back home just so I wouldn't have to take everyone with me to the soccer games again and try to escape my kids begging other teams for leftover snacks even when I have told them not to.

Thursday morning I had an appointment with the Occupational Therapist at Matthew's school to discuss his handwriting.  The occupational therapist brought along his team which consisted of a speech pathologist, a technology specialist and a teacher for the visually impaired ( I have no idea why she came).  They tested Matthew's handwriting, his speech patterns, typing skills and other things.  Matthew was a little anxious during the whole thing because he had his field trip into the community at 11:00am and all the testing started late at 10:15 am.  They were finishing up when his special education teacher came to tell us they were leaving on their field trip. Matthew immediately jumped out of his chair and walked out the door because there was no way he was going to miss that field trip testing or no testing.  The team, thankfully, could be done at that point with Matthew's testing which was good.  We spent the next 30 minutes discussing different things.  At the end it was decided that Matthew would be best served if his teacher allowed him to type his homework more often than writing it.  Thankfully she already does this most of the time.  It was also decided to let Matthew keep his Alphasmart which is a portable keyboard which allows Matthew to type notes, assignments, thoughts, etc. and to let him use it for more things including in taking tests.  Their reasoning for that is by spending more time on writing and trying to get his writing more legible he will be losing precious learning time that could be spent typing out things that he would have struggled writing--if that makes sense.  In school everyone is shifting more toward typing, anyway, so this would be an easier and more socially appropriate step to take. Thankfully he has a really great special education learning center teacher this year.  She is one of those teachers that really cares about Matthew reaching his potential which is awesome!  So the next few weeks they will be implementing these next steps so it will help Matthew some more which is good.  I think it should be a smooth transition for Matthew since he already does use the Alphasmart keyboard anyway.  I guess time will tell.

I had to bring Noah along with me to that meeting, but he was really good and didn't hardly make too much noise.  Afterward I had to drop off some money with Daniel's teacher for his upcoming field trip.  When that was all done it was almost time for Sarah to get out of class.  As we were waiting to pick Sarah up Noah kept me quite entertained.  He crawled up in the front seat and thought he was hot stuff.  He even put on my sunglasses thinking he was pretty awesome.  He then rolled down the window expecting me to stop him, but I didn't care.  It was a nice day and it made him happy, so why not?!

 What a funny guy!

Matthew had fun on his field trip.  He got to go out for lunch at Carl's Jr.  He was given $5 for lunch so he had to look at the menu and choose something he wanted to eat and stay within his $5 budget.  Then after lunch he went grocery shopping with his functional skills class.  Each student brings a grocery list from home.  They each get their own basket and walk around the store looking for their items.  I had given Matthew $16 to pick up a few groceries.  I thought it would have been enough, but he ended up being 6 cents short after tax.  His teacher was kind enough to give him the extra 6 cents.  Phew!!  Hopefully Matthew is learning how to manage money after these fun field trips.

It was nice to see Aaron Thursday afternoon, but I didn't see him for long.  As soon as he got home all the other kids got home from school, too, which was chaotic.  I had time enough to help with homework and fix dinner.  Then Aaron was off again to meetings for Elder's Quorum for the rest of the night.  He also had to go to work on Friday.  I was glad to finally have some downtime Friday afternoon, though.

While Aaron was in Fort Worth Texas on business his family was able to drive over from Plano/Rowlette Monday night to go out to dinner with him.  He said they had a nice visit and I was glad he had a chance to see them.  It was nice he was able to go somewhere for business that was somewhat close (2 hours away) to his parents and sister.

Saturday Noah and I had an appointment down at the University Hospital for a thyroid study we are part of. In the beginning of my pregnancy with Noah during a routine test my thyroid level showed up as being low. After that came back as low the doctor asked us to participate in a research study of medicating pregnant women with low thyroids to see if it had an impact on intelligence in the baby.  Studies have shown that an untreated low thyroid condition during pregnancy results in a lower IQ in the child.  My thyroid level was low, but not low enough to treat according to modern day standards.  This study was trying to see if medicating those pregnant women with lower, but still within normal limits thyroid levels would be beneficial.  In participating in this studay it meant I had to take a thyroid supplement or a placebo (I don't know which one I got it was a double blind study) during my pregnancy.  I also had to get my blood drawn every few weeks to check my thyroid level throughout my pregnancy.  After Noah was born I have to follow up every year around Noah's birthday for an IQ test and bloodwork for five years.  Seeing as Noah just turned four it was time to follow up the fourth time since pregnancy.  Seeing as we had to go down to Salt Lake anyway, we made a family day of it.  After Noah'sand my appointment we headed over to Temple Square to check out all of the beautiful flowers in bloom.

 It was a beautiful day outside and the kids loved walking around.

 We did check out a few of the visitor center displays inside which were interesting, too.

 One of our favorites was the replica of the temple.  It cut the temple in half and showed where each room was inside the temple.  The kids liked seeing what the inside of the temple looked like:

 It was nice to let the kids run around and work off some energy while seeing the flowers:

 I can't believe Aaron and I are almost at our 14 year anniversary.  That's a lot of craziness squeezed into 14 years--haha!  Good thing I love my husband and family!

Afterward we went over to the Pioneer Museum up by the Capitol Building.  I hadn't ever been there before and wanted to check it out.  It was interesting, but I think that was a one time visit place.  Although it was interesting it's not a place I am dying to go back to see again really soon.

By the time we got home we still had some good daylight left.  Aaron and I decided to get started putting in our yard.  We have lived in this house for a little over two years and have yet to plant anything besides grass.  We decided we are going to try and get the rest of our yard in.  I am sure our neighbors are probably thinking It's about time!  Hopefully, it won't take us another two years to get it all in.  We are hoping by the end of the month it will be done barring any hospital stays or other crisis which seem to happen more often than I'd like with my family---keeping my fingers crossed!